Doctoral Dissertation Research: Death and Survival in a Pandemic: A Bioarchaeological Investigation of Frailty and Resilience

博士论文研究：大流行中的死亡和生存：脆弱性和复原力的生物考古学调查

• 批准号: 1947214
• 负责人: Jane Buikstra
• 金额: $ 0.4万
• 依托单位: Arizona State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-03-15 至 2023-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1947214&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Death; Survival

This dissertation explores how human biological variation influenced the risk of death and survival in a major influenza pandemic. The researchers examine human skeletal remains of people who died during an influenza pandemic to understand how frailty (defined as the increased likelihood of disease and death) and resilience impacted the risk of mortality. In addition to increasing scientific knowledge of biological vulnerability, this project will help researchers understand how social norms create inequalities that directly impact health and mortality. The researchers will collect public health data on underrepresented groups, creating valuable information on how influenza incidence and severity may vary in marginalized populations. This project will therefore contribute to the goals of Healthy People 2020, a government initiative to improve the health of all Americans. This project will identify risk factors that increased a person’s risk of dying in a past influenza pandemic, helping scientists predict how a future influenza outbreak may affect modern populations. This research will provide a female first-generation college student with training in a STEM field, laboratory methods, and statistics, as well as additional opportunities for her to collaborate with scholars in other fields.It seems obvious that a person who is frail should always be more likely to die than someone who is healthy and resilient. However, during the Spanish Influenza pandemic of 1918, young adults between the ages of 20-40 were among the most likely to die. There are many theories as to why seemingly healthy young adults died in record numbers during this pandemic, however no one has questioned whether the young people were actually healthy. Was there some underlying frailty in these individuals or was the pandemic truly killing resilient people? This project will explore the factors that influenced mortality and survival in the 1918 pandemic by answering the following questions: 1) Were frail individuals more likely to die during the Spanish Influenza pandemic? 2) Were more resilient individuals more likely to survive the Spanish Influenza pandemic? 3) Do demographic factors such as age, sex, and race influence frailty and resilience? Human skeletal remains from the Hamann-Todd collection, an assemblage of individuals who died in Cleveland, Ohio, during the 1918 pandemic will be examined for skeletal markers of frailty and resilience. These data will be analyzed using a type of statistical analyses called hazards analysis that shows how the risk of death changes over time in response to certain circumstances. The results will show how the risk of death varied during the pandemic in individuals who were frail versus those who were resilient.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

本论文探讨了人类生物学变异如何影响重大流感大流行中死亡和生存的风险。研究人员检查了在流感大流行期间死亡的人的骨骼遗骸，以了解虚弱（定义为疾病和死亡的可能性增加）和恢复力如何影响死亡风险。除了增加生物脆弱性的科学知识外，该项目还将帮助研究人员了解社会规范如何造成直接影响健康和死亡率的不平等。研究人员将收集代表性不足群体的公共卫生数据，创造关于边缘化人群中流感发病率和严重程度如何变化的宝贵信息。因此，该项目将有助于实现2020年健康人的目标，这是一项改善所有美国人健康的政府倡议。该项目将确定在过去的流感大流行中增加人死亡风险的风险因素，帮助科学家预测未来流感爆发可能如何影响现代人群。这项研究将为第一代女大学生提供STEM领域的培训，实验室方法和统计数据，以及与其他领域学者合作的额外机会。然而，在1918年西班牙流感大流行期间，20-40岁的年轻人最有可能死亡。关于为什么看似健康的年轻人在这场大流行中死亡人数创纪录，有许多理论，但没有人质疑这些年轻人是否真的健康。这些人是否有潜在的弱点，或者这场流行病真的杀死了有韧性的人？本项目将通过回答以下问题来探讨1918年流感大流行中影响死亡率和生存率的因素：1）在西班牙流感大流行期间，虚弱的个体更有可能死亡吗？2)更有韧性的人更有可能在西班牙流感大流行中幸存下来吗？3)年龄、性别和种族等人口统计学因素会影响脆弱性和韧性吗？来自哈曼-托德收集的人类骨骼遗骸，是1918年大流行期间在俄亥俄州克利夫兰死亡的个人的集合，将检查骨骼脆弱和恢复力的标志。这些数据将使用一种称为危险分析的统计分析进行分析，该分析显示死亡风险如何随时间变化以应对某些情况。研究结果将显示，在大流行期间，身体虚弱的人与恢复能力强的人的死亡风险如何变化。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Missing data in bioarchaeology I: A review of the literature

• DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.24609
• 发表时间: 2022-08-23
• 期刊: AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
• 作者: Wissler, Amanda;Blevins, Kelly E.;Buikstra, Jane E.
• 通讯作者: Buikstra, Jane E.

Frailty and survival in the 1918 influenza pandemic

1918 年流感大流行中的虚弱与生存

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2304545120
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• 作者: Wissler, Amanda;DeWitte, Sharon N.
• 通讯作者: DeWitte, Sharon N.